Shirley Allen is arrested for murdering her husband with anti-freeze - 1982

On November 6, 1982, Shirley Allen is arrested for poisoning her husband, Lloyd Allen, with anti-freeze in Phelps County Missouri. Lloyd Allen was Shirley's sixth husband and the second to die from mysterious causes; the other four had divorced her.

John Gregg, who died a year after he married Shirley in 1977, had changed the beneficiary on his life insurance policy shortly before his death. Shirley was outraged to find that she was left with nothing. Lloyd, who is said to have complained of a strange taste in his beverages, believed Shirley when she said that it was an iron supplement for his health. However, Joe Sinclair, one of Shirley's previous husbands, had been a bit more suspicious. When his coffee tasted odd on several occasions, he went to the police. Although he suffered internal injuries, no charges were ever filed. Instead, he filed for divorce. Lloyd Allen died on November 1, 1982. Shirley was arrested and charged with murder after an autopsy confirmed that Lloyd Allen’s body tissue contained a lethal amount of ethyl glycol. After a short four-day trial, in which Allen’s own daughter testified that she witnessed her mother spike Lloyd’s drinks, Shirley Allen was found guilty and sentenced on July 6, 1984 to life in prison.

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